Center for Biological Diversity to Join Global Population Speak Out

The Center for
Biological Diversity announced today its participation in the second
annual Global Population Speak Out, a month-long effort to publicize
the crisis of unsustainable human population growth. The Center is
speaking out as part of its overpopulation campaign, which addresses
the devastating impacts of overpopulation on endangered
species.

"The Center for Biological Diversity
joins this year's Global
Population Speak Out to help
raise awareness about this critical environmental issue and the
endangered species and habitats threatened by human overpopulation,"
said Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate leading the Center's
campaign. "Unsustainable human population growth is the primary
underlying factor driving the current decline and mass extinction of
other life on Earth."

The Center's campaign, launched in
February 2009, is a major educational initiative drawing attention
to the close connection between the massive increase in human
numbers and the rapid decrease in the planet's biological diversity.
"It is rare that an environmental group is willing to address the
deep-seated problem of overpopulation," said Serraglio, "but with
more species going extinct today than ever before in our lifetime,
we can no longer ignore our impact on the planet. We hope that many
more conservation groups will join the conversation about population
growth because it affects every environmental issue."

As part of the ongoing campaign, the
Center has created a Web site that
illuminates the connection between burgeoning human population and
accelerating biodiversity loss. "Most biologists agree that we have
begun the sixth mass extinction event in the Earth's history," said
Serraglio. "What separates this one from earlier events is that it
is being driven by a single species - humans. All the direct threats
to the earth's biodiversity - land-use changes due to urban sprawl
and commercial development, environmental contamination, competition
for water and other resources, climate change, and so on - are
driven by human overpopulation."

The 2010 Speak Out promises to be larger
than last year's, as hundreds of individuals and groups have pledged
to participate. This year's sponsors include prominent conservation
voices from outside the United States, where the subject of human
overpopulation is less taboo, including the president of the
European Section of the Society for Conservation Biology and the
director of conservation at the African Conservation Foundation. "As
part of the GPSO this month and the Center's overpopulation
campaign, we're planning to launch creative, multimedia education
projects focused on protecting endangered species and our
environment," said Serraglio. "Our goal is to reach out to the
public in new ways and help people understand how they can be part
of the solution to curb runaway human population growth."

On the Web, please see https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/overpopulation/index.html
and https://gpso.wordpress.com/.